Crankyflier Dorkfest: September 2025

Crankyflier Dorkfest

September 2025: LAX Ramp Visit

American brought out their Astrojet-livery 737-800 for Crankyflier Dorkfest 2025's ramp visit at LAX.

Delta brought out an A350-900, not-quite 8 year old N507DN.

I don't want to know how much these door latches cost to machine.

New and different to see an airplane galley empty of all the containers.

Even on a new plane, some of the tech looks old school.

A350-900 cockpit.

The ground power unit truck had not yet arrived, so the plane was still mostly off.

Delta One, aka Thompson Aero Seating Vantage XL seats.

Not bad.

Decent storage.

32 Delta One pods.

Divider layout not as good as United.

Massive premium economy (Premium Select) cabin with 48 seats (48W).

38" of pitch is typical for premium economy. Bulkhead rows defintely the way to go.

Recaro CL3710 seats for Comfort+ (aka extra legroom economy). Bulkhead again the way to go.

34" of pitch in Comfort+.

Outer lavatories on A350 still small.

Middle of cabin lavatories/accessible pair bigger but nothing special.

Economy cabin is same Recaro CL3710 seats. Bulkhead is way to go.

International economy amenities.

31" pitch in economy... plus crew rest only for the last row?

Empty galley stil feels strange. All that orange.

Rear galley being empty not quite as strange, since the ovens and chillers make it look more full.

190 economy seats.

Aft crew rest is open.

Narrow stairs.

Six crew can sleep up here.

Three bunks by the aisle/stairs not too bad, but more disturbed due to location.

Three bunks deeper in are like a dark cave.

That cushion looks worn.

Not too bad.

Another aft galley photo.

Row 40 (bulkhead) plus seats 41A and 41J definitely the way to go in Economy.

Nice touches in Comfort+.

Midships galley.

Footwells not bad.

50+ people waiting to see the inside of N507DN.

LAWA brought a ton of donuts from Randy's Donuts. I think they were all gone by 10:00am.

Delta's new trading cards are swanky.

N905NN, a 13 year old 737-800.

Aeromexico 787-8 landing, with Hawaiian A330 in the background.

737NG winglet with A350 winglet in background for comparison.

American Airlines bingo.

156 economy seats, including 24 Main Cabin Extra and 132 Main Cabin.

Exit row is the way to go.

vs. normal Main Cabin at 30" pitch.

Collins MiQ seats in first class, 37" pitch.

Bulkhead not that much more spacious.

737-800 cockpit. So analog.

~48 people currently in line to check out the Astrojet.

Delta A350, LAWA tents, LAPD with drones and SWAT truck, power generator cart.

CFM56-7B26 on 737-800.

Tons of #AVgeeks watching planes take off and land.

Trent XWB-84 on Airbus A350-900.

Ooooo carbon fiber.

Rear view of Trent XWB-84.

Inside of landing gear bay.

Four-wheel main bougies.

Hanging out under the belly of an Airbus A350, pretending like it's a normal thing.

Crankyflier's Dorkfest / NYC Aviation's #SpotLAX2025 always has a great ramp visit first thing in the morning, in partnership with Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). Last year they had a DHL freighter out in addition to a Delta narrowbody, this year they got a Delta widebody (A350-900) out in addition to American Airlines' 737-800 in Astrojet heritage livery. Super cool, especially being able to get into some areas normally off-limits to passengers. Seeing the galleys empty of containers was a bit of a trip, and the aft crew rest was definitely an #AVgeek highlight.

I was early enough to board Delta's A350 that they had not yet brought over a ground power unit for it, so the cockpit was pretty much dark, ditto for the seat power/IFE, and even the flight attendants had not yet shown up til I was getting off the plane. Checking out American Airlines' 737 second meant they had a crew, power, and A/C working; they had both enthuastic flight attendants onboard as well as ground staff explaining the cockpit instead of pilots, which was a nice touch (ground staff are not appreciated nearly as much as they should be!).

Sadly with my tight schedule I was not able to spend much other time on the ramp, let alone the main event afterwards by In-N-Out, but looks like Crankyflier has a great write-up of what I missed-- looks like Southwest brought out quite the fleet, Delta had at least one cool livery at LAX, United brought out trading cards as well (not just Delta!), and things were capped off with the retirement flight of a United 787 captain landing. Super cool, am sad I missed out on the main event.